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Cellist Jennifer Kloetzel recently released her final recording with the Cypress String Quartet,Brahms: String Sextets. Recorded in front of a live studio audience at Skywalker Sound Studio, Brahms: String Sextets includes the two string sextets by Johannes Brahms, and features the Cypress String Quartet along with guest artists Barry Shiffman (viola) and Zuill Bailey (cello). The album debuted at Number 6 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart, and was also featured as the Bay Area Classical KDFC's "CD of the Week." To download the album, please visit the Avie Records website.

About Jennifer Kloetzel

A graduate of The Juilliard School and a Fulbright Scholar, cellist Jennifer Kloetzel has concertized throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. A founding member of the Cypress String Quartet, Ms. Kloetzel has toured the world and performed at outstanding venues such as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Chautauqua Institute and the Ravinia Festival, the Lobkowicz Palaces in both Vienna and Prague, as well as prominent colleges and conservatories nationwide.

Ms. Kloetzel is noted for her elegant playing and has given numerous recitals, including concerts for San Francisco Performances and on WQXR in New York. In the past few seasons, she performed the world premiere of a Cello Suite by Daniel Asia and a Cello Concerto, “Cloud Atlas” and unaccompanied cello work “Lift”, that were both written for her by MIT composer Elena Ruehr. The San Jose Mercury News proclaimed, “Cellist Jennifer Kloetzel shines in premiere” and called her a “terrific soloist…with a robust and earthy sound.” Ms. Kloetzel has recorded the Ruehr Cello Concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, which was released to critical acclaim in October 2014. “Lift” is the title track of an all-Ruehr disc, released in January 2015 on the Avie label. Ms. Kloetzel is winner of The Juilliard School’s top award, the “Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Leadership and Achievement in Music”, and a Presser Music Award, as well as a Fulbright Grant to England. In 2004 she was honored with the McGraw-Hill Companies’ “Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach” in recognition of years of outreach work in schools and community centers. She has appeared at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Sarasota and Aspen Music Festivals, the Britten-Pears School, the Prague Mozart Academy, and performed as cellist of the Cassatt Quartet during the 1995-96 season.

Growing up near Baltimore, Ms. Kloetzel began her cello studies at age six. Her teachers included Aldo Parisot, William Pleeth, Harvey Shapiro, Stephen Kates and Paula (Virizlay) Skolnick, as well as members of the Juilliard String Quartet, the Amadeus Quartet and the Cleveland Quartet. After performing with pianist André Previn at the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival in 1992, Ms. Kloetzel was invited to appear as one of his select “Rising Stars” at the 1993 and 1994 Caramoor Festivals in New York.

From 2003-2009, Ms. Kloetzel taught cello and chamber music at San José State University, where the Cypress String Quartet was Ensemble-in-Residence. She has given master classes at The Juilliard School, San Francisco Conservatory, and at universities throughout the U.S.

Ms. Kloetzel has been featured numerous times on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” and her performances have been broadcast on radio stations from coast to coast. As a member of the Cypress String Quartet, she has received the Copland Award for championing living American Composers and has also commissioned and premiered more than thirty works. Ms. Kloetzel has recorded 16 CDs with the CSQ, most recently the entire cycle of Beethoven Quartets on the Avie label. She has performed as principal cellist of the Concert Artists of Baltimore, the Baltimore Opera and the Juilliard Orchestra (under Maestro Kurt Masur). In addition, she is a frequent guest soloist with numerous orchestras, performing concertos by Brahms, Dvořák, Elgar and Haydn.